We saw some horrible news headline yesterday and my wife said that she's embarrassed by our country. I told her that when I English teach for Russians, we often read news and headlines. We also laugh at the absurd propaganda that both "our" countries supply.

"Countries" are a poor representation of the vast majority of people in the world. If the only thing you knew about everyone you cared about was their very worst tendencies and flaws, you wouldn't like them either.

And yeah, central banking is the engine, politics and brand names(nations) are being run by them.